Hinami blinked.

Did she heard that right? Or did her ears tricked her? Or did the man lied?

Hinami stared at the messenger of the King, looking for any traces of nervousness that one has when lying, but she found none, Hirako Take was as blank as a paper. It was unlikely that anyone dared to fake the current King's messages anyway, he was a terrifying man.

"Excuse me, can you repeat the message? "

"Of course my Lady, you are to be engaged to the Crown Prince of the Rabbit kingdom, Kirishima Ayato, by the King's order."

Hinami stilled. So, she did not heard that wrong, she's going to be married off. To the Crown Prince of the Rabbit kingdom no less. To think that her fate was decided by others, it's like her life was never really hers. She was just a tool in their game of power and politics, afterall, that was the fate of anyone who did not belong in the royal family or simply don't have enough power of their own to avoid such matters.

She was, obviously, the latter.

Although her father was the royal doctor and her mother came from the direct line of a noble family, the power they hold will never be able to make the King reconsiders his orders. It didn't help that she was now the only alive member of the Fueguchi house, meaning that she has no major figure to back her up, she has her oni-chan - the Crown Prince, but making him go against his father for her sake would be the last thing Hinami wanted to do on Earth.

Her father was killed in the last war against the Rabbit Kingdom, he was the doctor of a small group of troops that got ambushed and slaughtered mercilessly. Her mother also died in the same year, she was assasinated for unknown reasons. And the relatives from her maternal side was not many, they were all knights, and they chose to die for their country on the battlefield.

Therefore, at the tender age of twelve, she was pushed in the head position of Fueguchi house, she became Lady Fueguchi. That was five years ago.

With all the blood that had been spilled and the deep hatred between the two kingdoms, hers and oni-chan's marriage will never work.

First was her oni-chan, and now her. What games was the King playing? She needs to speak with him now.

Making up her decisions, she dismissed Hirako Take and wish him a good day. After the man had left, Hinami turned to her most trusted servant, Ms. Tanaka, and said,"Please prepare the attire for royal attendance and the carriage, I wish to speak with the king."

--o0o--

For a meeting with the King, one must dress impeccably, flattering but appropriate, stunning but proper, even if only for a brief moment because the King was never to be in contact with anything less than perfection.

So there she was, sitting in the expertly crafted carriage bearing the Fueguchi crest, dolled up in the best gown that she had, the gown of her late mother. Simple in design but suiting for her aristocratic status. It was a high-collared dirty yellow gown with earthy brown linings and details, like any formal gown, its length reached her ankle. The sleeves hugged her arms slightly, from elbow down the sleeves were widened and ruffled, the tips lined with brown. Attached to her collar was a white piece of ruffled cloth, held in place by a crimson ribbon tied into a bow. At the centre of the bow was a red orange gem rimmed with gold. The gown was simply breathtaking.

She did not had much make up on her face, just some pink lip gloss to accentuate her full lips and some powder to lighten her complexion. Her hair was not long enough for a bun so flower-shaped hair clips were used to decorate her light brown locks.

She looked beautiful and mature, how a clan head of her status should look like, but Hinami has always felt so suffocated inside this carefully crafted shell, it was not her, it was just a facade that she has to broadcast for the world to see. She was not mature and beautiful, she was just a normal seventeen years old girl.

As the carriage pull to a stop in front of the castle's gate, she was pulled out of her thoughts. She lifted the curtains of the carriage's window slightly, just enough to see many civilians crowding outside the gates, after nearly a month, the crowd had atleast calmed down and resulted to silent protests. There weren't as many people as before since this was the hottest season in the year and nobody really wanted to be grilled by the sun just to have a slim chance at breaking the engagent.

The guards opened the gates for her carriage to pass through, gladly none of the civilians tried to follow her inside. They must have recognized her family crest on the carriage and thought that she was here to stop the engagement. After all, the Crown Prince was known to value her words and opinions.

Their thoughts are not really far from the truth. She had not reacted to the engagement of her oni-chan because she firmly believed that the King would not do anything unbeneficial to his son, however, she really didn't believe that a simple marriage would magically right every wrong, but did not voice her opinion, after all the decision lies in the Prince's hands.

But now that even a noble like her was allowed to be a Prince's fiance, she can't help but question the King's motives. Only a princess could match with a prince. She was no princess, she was just Hinami.

When the carriage stopped and a Knight opened the door for her, Hinami slipped into her "Lady Fueguchi" character. Turn her body to the door first, step a foot out, rise from her seat slightly, place a hand on the knight's gloved palm and let him assist her to the ground. Then give him a polite smile, just a small tilt of the left corner of her mouth, enough to show gratitude, no hidden messages, and walk calmly to the door, wait for a royal servant to come to her.

She arrived suddenly so there was no royal servant prepared to tend to her needs, but it was not necessary, she only came here to speak with the King.

Hinami had to wait for an available servant, since most of them are busy with their own duties, to her suprise, it was not a servant who came, but it was Banjou Kazuichi, one of her oni-chan's personal knight.

"Greetings, my Lady, what brought you to the palace today, might I ask? If you were here to visit the Crown Prince, I'm afraid he is unavailable at the moment for he was out of town for a task the king had assigned."

Banjou smiled then perfomed a formal bow. She was rather delighted to see one of her accquantainces, but she was here for an important matter.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to visit the Crown Prince, I'm here because wish to speak with the King himself."

Banjou seemed taken back at that, she has never requested to speak with the king privately, most of her trips to the palace were just to visit oni-chan or attend the usual royal meetings. A private audience was indeed, unsual.

"Might I ask why, My Lady?"

"I believe you have heard the news of my engagement? I'm very grateful that I was chosen to be a Prince's fiance. I wish to personally give the King my gratitude."

She lied, not like anyone would need to know of her real purpose, it would raise tension and uneasiness in the kingdom if she - a head of a house, directly oppose the marriage.

But her lie was so noticeable, if she simply wanted to thank the king, she would have told Hirako Take to prepare for her visit, not dismiss him without any notice.

"Then, I shall accompany you to the throne room, my Lady."

"Thank you, sir Banjou."

But Banjou didn't suspect a thing, he wasn't really a perceptive man. Ignorance is a good trait to have in his line of work, there were too many fobidden secrets inside the royal family, knowing just one could cost you your life.

When they reached the throne room, Banjou went to spoke to the guards in low tones, he was informing them about her purpose here since it was inappropriate for a Lady of her status to directly address a guard.

After he was done, Banjou gave her a polite smile and proceeded to return to his duties, "Should you need me my Lady, please ask for a servant to retrieve me. I will be returning to my duties."

He bowed and left. Hinami look at his retreating back for a moment then turn to face the large ivory doors fully, head raise high and posture stiff, the guards took that as a signal and opened the doors for her, one of them announced her presence to the King.

"Lady Fueguchi head of the Fueguchi house!"

At the call of her title, Hinami strides forward, full of confidence but enough to not be mistaken with arrogance, elegant but not overwhelming. She feels like a textbook example of "proper lady".

The throne room was large, decorated in shades of cream, white, gold and red, nothing less than luxury. The room has high ceilings with a gigantic crystal chandeliers, there were delicate carvings on the ceilings. In the Washuus's time, the ceiling was carved with death and chaos, gory war scenery and malicious devils, after the current overthrow them, he decided that the throne room was unfit and doesn't go well with his ways of ruling, so the ceiling was fixed.

Gory war scenes was slowly transformed into scales of a large dragon, devils were twisted and bind into angelic shapes. After a few months, the horrible ceiling that many nobles found disturbing was no more, it was now a beautiful picture of angels and an Asian dragon dancing around each other.

To the left of the throne room were huge windows framed with fiery red curtains with real gold linings, giving a spectacular view of the royal garden. And at the very back of the room was a high platform, on that platform are thrones of the royal family. There were three thrones, two equally big ones made by gold and red velvet, and a smaller one made by white gold and black velvet.

Only one person was present on the throne. It was the king.

He looked cold, pure white locks falling down his forehead, some of his bangs touching the rim of his rectangular glasses, behind those glasses were stormy grey, glacial eyes, just like her oni-chan's eyes. His face as sharp and angular as always, not a hint of his old age were present.

There was not a day Arima Kishou looked older than twenty five, although he was actually almost forty. His son's appearance was equally deceiving, Ken did not look a day over fifteen, yet he was going to be twenty this December.

It runs in the gene it seems.

As similar as they are, Arima and her oni-chan were also different in many ways. While Ken charmed people around him with his warm personality and pure smiles, Arima intimidated people with his aloofness and glacial eyes. One of the small things she noticed about him that the king wanted nothing less than perfection.

It was obvious, really. He didn't like the Washuus's crown, so he requested the blacksmith to make another one according to his tastes. She must say that the new crown complimented him perfectly, like it was made for him(it technically did, unintended pun here). The crown was simple to say, and not what other kings would choose to be their symbol of power and dominance. It was made of platinum, designed so that it looked like ivory threads decorated with white and sky blue gems were wrapping around his head, at the middle of the crown was a diamond-shaped gem with the same shade of blue. The crown was beautiful in its own right.

But Arima Kishou did not need a complicated crown to exudenpower and dominance anyway, the man was a league on his own. His presence was intimidating enough.

When she reached the throne, Hinami bowed to show her respect to the king, it was required of every citizens in the kingdom to do so.

"My king, I am honored to be able to have a private audience with you."

"You may rise, Miss Fueguchi."

He commanded, as always he addressed her as Miss Fueguchi, not Lady Fueguchi Because of her close relationship with his son he chose to address her with something that wasn't too informal but also held distance at the same time. At his command she straightened her posture and wait for the King to speak. It was unspoken rule that one must let the King leads the conversation.

"You came here for a reason. What did you want to discuss with me?"

He spoke up, it was her cue now.

Trying to put on her best grateful but also scared look, Hinami lied expertly,"My King, I am honored to be chosen as the future wife of a Prince, I can not express how grateful I felt. But I'm afraid that a lowly noble like me would do no good to the Prince's reputation, especially if he is to be a king in the future. A suitable wife for him should be one with high social standing, such as a Princess. I am unworthy of his highness's love."

At her heartfelt confession, the King didn't even do so much as a blink before pushing her words back to her.

"Were you not of high social standing, Lady Fueguchi?"

Hinami bit her lips. Lady Fueguchi, such a simple phrase, but she knew that he was reminding her of her position as head of a house, which is clearly a high social standing title. "Lady Fueguchi" also reminded her that she was just a noble serving under him, her life and dead were in his hands.

What a dangerous game she was playing now. But what's more dangerous is the king's hidden plans, if there were any at all.

"No of course not, my King."

"Then there is no reason to say you are unfit to be Prince Kirishima Ayato's future bride. This matter has been discussed severa times by me and the King of the Rabbit kingdom himself."

Hinami's eyes widened. That took her by suprise, the king of the Rabbit kingdom himself? When did they even met?

"In addition, since the Princess of the Rabbit Kingdom will be our future queen, it is only fair that our kingdom's Princess also become the queen of the Rabbit Kingdom, no?"

She understood the message loud and clear. It was all about balance in politics, one can not have greater power than another, they must hold something in equal ground.

If the Litch kingdom is going to have a queen who possesses the Rabbit kingdom's blood, then the Rabbit kingdom is to have a queen who possesses the Litch kingdom's blood, too.

Fair and square.

"But unfortunately I do not have a daughter, me and my wife do not plan to give the Crown Prince a sibling either. So we are to choose a fine Lady in the noble houses. It seems that you have figured out the rest. And I believe you have acquired what you had in mind when coming to the palace?"

Of course, her small acts, her lies and intentions were as clear as day to him. This man reads people on a daily basis after all, her façade was easily analyzed and brought down under the King's gaze.

She could only choke out a few words."But... my king..., why me...? "

"Miss Fueguchi, you are an admirable young lady with outstanding qualities, and you have a high social standing position. I'm positive that you are more qualified than any other ladies."

Praises that were meant to be flattering sounded like nothing but mere facts from his lips.